Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Monday, January 4, 2010

It's Monday, January 4, and we're home. Sigh. The last couple of days were spent, mostly, at the beach. Alena, Tina and I did some trinket shopping in Kona on New Year's Eve, and had one last lunch at our favorite lunch spot. The fish tacos at Splasher's are fantastic!

New Year's Eve was relatively uneventful, until about 1:30AM, when a young Aussie, Adrian, decided take a dip in the fountain just outside our bedroom. We both thought it was Adam doing a bad Aussie accent, but no, it was Adrian and his two coconuts. He eventually wandered to where ever and we went back to sleep. New Year's night was spent listening to a bunch of drunk teenagers partying in one of the units on our floor, and imagine Rob's joy at having to chase some drunken kid away from our bedroom window as the kid was peeing on the window.

We spent New Year's Day on Hapuna Beach. The surf was still too high for much snorkeling, so we had to resort to beach-sitting, at what Max has taken to calling, "Barbecue Beach." We had a weinie roast there a couple of nights ago, and so that's how he remembers which beach is which.

We had all cleaned out our fridges, so we took Mom out for dinner, but only after we had a family photo session on A Beach. Briggs will forward them eventually.

The trip home was, well, an adventure. We all got to Honolulu planning on getting something to eat in the airport before boarding. Somehow, Hawiian Air hasn't quite got the hang of being thoughtful about how to get people from one gate to the next, and we got off in one terminal and had to walk probably a half mile to the next one. There was one, count them, one restaurant between Point A and the south end of Ouahu (where Gate 32 was). With just 15 minutes till boarding time, Alena and I raced back to the restaurant, bought $15 sandwiches for each of us and raced back. The flight was full, and long, but you know that you are in for some special joy when you land and the cabin crew gets on the PA to announce that there had been a mishap with some of the luggage in Honolulu and the following passengers will need to check with the agent at the baggage carousel. You guess it. Rob's name got called. Turns out that Alena and Adam's bags spent an extra night in Honolulu. I believe they must hire Hawaiian Air employees for their ability to obfuscate. Remember last year's pilot saying, "We'll get you as close to Honolulu as possible?"

Still and all, it was a fantastic trip, truly a trip of a lifetime, and we are very fortunate to have had the chance to go!